LIVERPOOL FC: Solid start but same old problems

Gerrard applauds the Kop after Sunday's draw with Arsenal

AFTER the tantalising but tiresome takeover talk that has made two months feel two years, it was just nice to get back to the football - for a couple of hours at least.

Everyone connected with Liverpool FC has finally joined forces in recognising that the club must lance the boil of the current owners to put the club back on track.

But as club managing director Christian Purslow stressed hours before the showdown with Arsenal, it's not a process that can be rushed. After having its fingers burnt so badly by the hot air of Tom Hicks and George Gillett, the club has to get it right this time.

The situation has rightly led to a lowering of expectations, for now at least. And while any Liverpool manager will be under pressure - the history and the standing of the club will always ensure that - Hodgson will perhaps be afforded more time than his predecessors before fingers are pointed in his direction.

The signings of Joe Cole, Fabio Aurelio and Christian Poulsen show exactly where Liverpool are on and off the pitch. A free transfer, a player deemed injury prone and a Danish destroyer in the twilight years of his career are hardly the signings of a club with real title ambition.

Talk from some had been that Hodgson may 'let Liverpool off the leash' - imaginary shackles that the players were forced to play in under Rafa Benitez, according to many.

That's a point that can be argued ad infinitum - and is on almost every Liverpool forum.

Shackles or not, Hodgson needs to be released from his own handcuffs - the club's lack of finances - before he can truly stamp his mark on the club.

With that in mind, it was no surprise to see a safety-first approach adopted against Arsenal.

The circumstances were unfortunate given an incident as rare as a sighting of the new Everton away kit on County Road - a Pepe Reina mistake - but Hodgson would surely be the first to admit that he would happily have taken a draw before a ball was kicked against Arsene Wenger's side.

The fixture computer wasn't kind to Hodgson, and that continues to be the case with a trip to Manchester City next up, so to get a point on the board at the first attempt was undoubtedly a huge comfort for the new manager.

Liverpool's performances against Macedonian minnows Rabotnicki had prompted some to suggest that a gung-ho approach could be adopted at Anfield.

A glance down the teamsheet quickly dimissed such talk as fanciful - the line-up was first and foremost solid: Steven Gerrard and Javier Mascherano in front of the defence, two workers on the wings in Dirk Kuyt and Milan Jovanovic and a back four that contained only one player with any thoughts of attacking in Glen Johnson.

It was Arsenal that started the stronger, dictating the play, looking more like the home side and adopting a much higher line than Liverpool who doggedly defended the edge of the 18-yard box for most of the match.

Across the 90 minutes the Londoners had a huge 64 per cent of the possession.

Thomas Vermaelen was the first to worry a goalkeeper, his fourth-minute free-kick fisted away by Reina who at that stage was hoping for his first-ever clean sheet against the Gunners.

Cole had lifted spirits with his performance against Rabotnicki but he was given little chance to shine on his Premier League bow for the Reds. Abou Diaby snapped at his heels at every opportunity and the Arsenal team generally didn't give him a second to settle.

Aside from a neat backheel in a build-up to a Reds' move, Cole did little else other than pick himself up off the floor before he was harshly sent off for a challenge on Laurent Koscielny.

Cole heads for the dressing rooms after his sending off

Despite the gospel preachings of Jamie Redknapp and Andy Gray on Sky, Cole did not jump in with two feet off the floor and the connection that brought the player down was more with his trailing leg than the leading boot.

Liverpool can rightly point to challenges from Jack Wilshere on Mascherano and Tomas Rosicky on Gerrard as being equal to that of Cole's yet both Arsenal players merely saw the inside of Martin Atkinson's notebook rather than the inside of the Anfield dressing room.

Jovanovic was the more impressive of the new signings, a bustling seventh-minute run in which he swatted Bacary Sagna to the ground suggesting his tough-nut, hard-working style will soon endear him to the Anfield faithful.

Arsenal were cuter in possession for most of the game, albeit - as is so often the case with Wenger's side - without any real cutting edge.

Liverpool's attacking threat was also limited, the Reds regularly resorting to hopeful early balls to Ngog who, like so many times last season, was too often left isolated in a lone attacking role.

The Reds are desperate for another striker and with Fernando Torres still searching for full fitness - and now possessing a worrying recent injury record - a reinforcement before the transfer window closes at the end of August is a must.

Ngog, though, is doing his best to take advantage of his opportunity. And after a frustrating first half which saw him starved of service and caught offside three times by the Gunners' quickly advancing and well-drilled backline, he lit up the game with a wonderful near-post drive, his eighth Premier League goal - all of them at Anfield.

Ngog celebrates his impressive strike

That Torres was pictured grinning his approval from the bench said it all. It was a strike that he, arguably the best striker in the world, would have been proud of.

The Frenchman, just 21 and looking more and more a snip at just £1.5million, also had a header cleared off the line in the first half and while his detractors continue to point out his failings, it's worth considering just what responsibility is being placed upon his inexperienced shoulders.

Arsenal can boast Van Persie (27), Chamakh (26), Nicklas Bendtner (22) and Carlos Vela (21) as frontline strikers.

Liverpool have Ngog, Torres, then players that are either inexperienced  - Lauri Dalla Valle (18), Nathan Ecclestone (19), Dani Pacheco (19) - or not out and out strikers (Jovanovic, Kuyt, Ryan Babel).

To put it into perspective, Ngog and Vela are both 21. Vela has 28 caps and nine goals for Mexico yet in four years as an Arsenal player he has twice been farmed out on loan and has started just three games in the Premier League, appearing as a substitute 22 times, scoring two goals.

Ngog has been at Liverpool for two years, started 13 Premier League games, made 26 substitute appearances and scored eight goals. In all competitions for the Reds he has scored 15 in 59 appearances - better than one in four, and many of those appearances were as a substitute and for a matter of minutes.

As a rookie forward he has arguably been overused - a victim of circumstance. Strikers of a similar age and ability at clubs of a similar stature are simply not being called upon as much as he is because of the greater strength in depth.

Glen Johnson, who in the first half had linked well with Kuyt before testing Manuel Almunia with a fierce left-footed effort, again linked with the Dutchman in the build up to Ngog's goal.

The move broke down but it was the excellent Mascherano who revived it, stealing the ball and threading it inside the Arsenal defence for Ngog to finish confidently.

That 46th-minute goal set the tone for a battling second-half display, one which outsiders can only guess as to whether it was fuelled by Hodgson's half-time team talk or a burning sense of injustice at Cole's sending off.

Liverpool showed great spirit and effort throughout, but we knew this team had that in them - even during the nightmare that was last season Everton were beaten by ten men and Spurs were defeated with an Anfield display that was more fight than finesse.

Jamie Carragher and Gerrard were both superb against Arsenal, the skipper clearly cutting a much happier figure under Hodgson. The statistics show he was the Premier League's top tackler at the weekend, winning eight for a 75 per cent success rate. But it remains to be seen how he will perform long term in a deeper role if that is where Hodgson chooses to employ him.

Martin Skrtel, too, made some crucial blocks while Daniel Agger clearly played on autopilot for the best part of 20 minutes, the Dane concussed from a ball to the face in the 67th minute with TV pictures appearing to show the defender saying 'I don't know what I'm doing'.

Liverpool effectively played from that moment onwards with nine men and inevitably Arsene Wenger's side came more into the game and carved out opportunities, particularly when the manager went for broke with his substitutions, leaving his side pressing for a goal with Van Persie, Chamakh, Walcott, Rosicky and Arshavin on the pitch.

The Reds battled on valiantly before sickeningly succumbing to the last-gasp equaliser via Reina's fumble. It was a bad error, a costly mistake - one of many by goalkeepers in the Premier League this weekend.

But to attach blame, point the finger or question the Spaniard's ability would be churlish in the extreme - Reina was clearly handicapped by the sun as the ball came across, his glove across his eyes as he strained to pick out the flight of the cross.

A truer example of his ability came from his superb save from Rosicky, tipping over when it seemed certain the Czech would score after a tidy one-two with Van Persie.

Those with even the smallest inkling of doubt about Reina should ask Wenger what he makes of the Anfield No.1. He must have seen something he likes in the five years Reina has plied his trade in England - he bid in the region of £23million for him after all just a week or so before this clash.

So the match finished all square, a Gerrard free kick too close to Almunia to repeat his trick of 2007 when a piece of last-gasp set piece brilliance claimed all three points on the opening day of the season at Villa Park.

In truth not too much could be gleaned from the performance. That Hodgson could get a team defensively organised was never in doubt. That Gerrard, Mascherano, Kuyt, Carragher and Skrtel could defend, show spirit and battle with the best of them was also well known.

Mascherano was superb for Liverpool

The test for Hodgson is to squeeze more creativity, more attacking threat out of the current crop of players. Perhaps a bigger test, a more telling conundrum for the manager, will be when teams arrive at Anfield with no intention of going for the win. The buses are already ticking over, ready to park. It's up to Hodgson to come up with a way of moving them - a task that has frustrated a succession of managers at Anfield.

Hodgson himself concluded that while Sunday was a good result, it was too early to judge the team - or him.

He said: "I’m still learning about this team. I think the fans can expect the players to run round and chase and show the same spirit as they have always done. If we can add a bit of tactical awareness and organisation the supporters can expect a good season."

Liverpool v Arsenal: Reds can make the most of Anfield's air of optimism

NEW BOYS: Roy Hodgson with Joe Cole, Milan Jovanovic and Danny Wilson

SO here we are, the new season and who would have thought things would have felt so positive around Liverpool Football Club?

When the curtain closed on last season's dismal league campaign with a drab draw at Hull, most Reds thought that would be that for the Anfield careers of Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres.

That was a conclusion reached not through pessimism or doom-mongering, it was a very real possibility. Chelsea were waiting in the wings for Torres and Real Madrid were quoted a price for Gerrard.

Both have stayed, one seemingly buoyed by the change in the manager, the other by the likelihood of an imminent change in ownership and therefore ambition.

So with star players with a smile on their face, new attacking options in Joe Cole and Milan Jovanovic, the return of Fabio Aurelio, the delayed departures of Emiliano Insua and Javier Mascherano, and the arrival of Christian Poulsen (left), all of a sudden it seems new boss Roy Hodgson has options all over the field.

It will be interesting to see what his line up against Arsenal is tomorrow. Hodgson traditionally set up at Fulham with two banks of four, a targetman, and a player in behind, normally Zoltan Gera.

The big man up front is not an option Hodgson has with the current squad and the rumoured return of Peter Crouch now on the back burner.

That's unfortunate given his textbook hat-trick, one with each foot and a header, the last time we beat Arsenal in the Premier League in March 2007.

Since then it's been four draws and two defeats in our meetings in the league, with our last win in all competitions against the Gunners being the 4-2 Champions League quarter-final victory in 2008.

I wouldn't expect Hodgson to go balls out in an attempt to break that run of results  - the most likely set-up is the Rafa Benitez-favoured 4-2-3-1.

Fernando Torres is likely to start from the bench given Hodgson's comments regarding his fitness in his most recent press conference, so that should mean David Ngog is given the nod to lead the line.

It's likely to be a tight game, but I fancy Liverpool to benefit from the 'new manager effect' and the current wave of optimism around Anfield and sneak a narrow victory with a fired-up Steven Gerrard and a revitalised Joe Cole proving too much for an Arsenal side likely to be without Cesc Fabregas and Robin van Persie (with a bit of luck.). If the Reds do nick it, it will be their 2000th win in league football.

FACT FILE 

Liverpool v Arsenal, Sunday, August 15, kick-off 4pm. Live on Sky Sports 1.

Last five at Anfield:

December 12, 2009: Liverpool 1 Arsenal 2 (Premier League)
April 21, 2009: Liverpool 4 Arsenal 4 (Premier League)
April 8, 2008: Liverpool 4 Arsenal 2 (Champions League)
October 28, 2007: Liverpool 1 Arsenal 1 (Premier League)
March 31, 2007: Liverpool 4 Arsenal 1 (Premier League)

Odds:

Liverpool 6/4 Arsenal 2/1 Draw 12/5.

First goalscorer: Torres 4, Van Persie 7, Ngog 7, Chamakh, Gerrard 15-2, Arshavin 8, Kuyt 10, Cole 11, Jovanovic 14, Carragher 80.

Fact:

This is the 173rd time Liverpool and Arsenal have met. Liverpool lead by 68 wins to 60, with 44 draws.

Magic moment:

Robbie Fowler smashing in the Premier League's fastest-ever hat-trick in just four minutes and 33 seconds as the Reds won 3-0 at Anfield in August 1994.

New owners at LIVERPOOL FC? Well just Huang on a minute...

If I knew back then what I know now 

If I understood the what, when, why and how

Now it's clear to me

What I should have done

But hindsight is 20/20 vision

GEORGE BENSON had it right, hindsight gives us 20/20 vision. And if we'd had that benefit, the throng of Liverpool fans that prevented Tom Hicks from entering Anfield the last time we faced Arsenal would have been present in even bigger numbers when, three and a half years ago, he first ventured into the vicinity of the postal district of L4.

The reign of Hicks and George Gillett as owners of Liverpool Football Club is possibly coming to an end with solid news on a new owner expected within a week according to reputable sources including The Times.

After the lies, the politics, the broken promises and our unwelcome crash course in accountancy, not to mention of the suffocating blanket of debt that has accompanied the American's time in charge, it's easy to see why many fans will look at prospective owners and say, 'They'll do'.

But back to hindsight. Whilst hindsight is now used to point fingers about how we as a club ever arrived at the situation where two men lacking class, cash or football knowledge were allowed the keys to the Shankly Gates, it should also be used to question any future suitors.

Yet already some fans are poised to unfurl their China flags and declare that Kenny's from heaven. Well just Huang on a minute.

It's all well and good supporters castigating Rick Parry, David Moores, the Premier League's pointless 'fit and proper person test', the media and so on for not seeing through the smiles, sniffing out the sh*te or questioning the iffy track record of the successful purchasers the last time the club was sold.

Kenny Huang

But fans were taken in, too - remember the banners (there were a few variations on the theme) aping the Mastercard advert: Match ticket £32, New stadium: £220m - For everything else there's Tom & George?

So to see some swallowing the Chinese whispers of a new investor without a care to question is breathtaking given our recent history.

It also leaves a sour taste in the mouth to see fans acting like lottery winners, instantly looking to the money, talking about how many millions more we can spend than other clubs.

Once upon a time fans argued with rival supporters about who had the best number nine - now it's who has the richest owners.

It's not football as I know it and for me some kind of supporter representation is the key to retaining some semblance of the club I once knew.

The name of Liverpool has already been dragged through the mud, the club in many respects has lost sight of it roots - fans are increasingly being priced out of watching the team they love, the community around the ground appears long forgotten.

What Kenny Huang, Yahaya Kirdi, the Rhone Group and the Al Kharafi family all have in common (if indeed they all have a genuine interest in the club) is they see Liverpool as an opportunity, a brand to be exploited, a supporter base believed to run into the hundreds of millions which can be squeezed. 

Super-rich fans that genuinely care for the club have been priced out by the money-mad game but even fiscally-motivated aims can complement those of fans - owners can pocket a profit and bask in the prestige of being associated with the most-decorated club in Britain, we can taste success again and the club can be run in a way befitting of 'The Liverpool Way'.

That's the ideal. But the other side of the coin is Hicks and Gillett. And there's many more like them sniffing out a buck without a care for football. Read David Conn's The Beautiful Game? for an excellent if depressing insight into clubs - and fans - that have been shafted by their owners.

Owners in the modern game care about money. Fans care about the club. The two can and should work together, a fact recognised by UEFA who, according to the FSF, will under Club Licensing and Financial Fair Play Regulations have the obligation to appoint a Supporter Liaison Officer to ensure a dialogue between a club and its fans from 2012.

The rule-makers could go further - in Germany a '50 plus one' rule means clubs will always retain their identity and power because owners can only ever take 49 per cent of control of Bundesliga holding companies. Rules such as these have allowed Bayern Munich - Champions League finalists last season - to stay debt-free and offer tickets for as little as £11.

We shouldn't hold our breath about a similar model being adopted in England any time soon, though. Portsmouth's plummet into administration - and the Championship - after having four owners in a season proves the Premier League's power men are quite happy to leave it alone and allow the financial rat race to continue unchecked. Laissez-faire? What's fair about that?

But there is one way for fans to enjoy greater power in the current set up - own the club themselves. That may seem fanciful given the huge figures being bandied around to buy Liverpool but with the aforementioned hundreds of millions of fans worldwide - why not?

The joining of forces of Liverpool supporters' union Spirit of Shankly and Share Liverpool and the forming of a credit union are steps in the right direction. It will clearly take time but with support from fans it is achievable - Bayern is 80 per cent fan owned, while Barcelona's decisions are taken by a president and board of directors voted for by its 102,000 members, hence the motto "Més que un club" (More than a club).

Dedicated Liverpool fans would argue that LFC is also more than a club. It's certainly more than a business proposition. And that's why supporters - and the Liverpool board - should scrutinise and question every step of a bid to take power at Anfield.

Until match-going fans are involved in decision-making processes, suspicion is healthy for the well-being of the club we all love.

Joe 90 and Stevie Glee put a (temporary) smile on Liverpool FC

JOE 90 (grand a week)

IT’S been a whirlwind few days for Liverpool, culminating in the signing of Joe Cole, the commitment of Steven Gerrard to the club (finally) and now the announcement of a deal for Danny Wilson, the 18-year-old centre half from Rangers.

Whatever way you look at it, all of the above is good news for Liverpool.

It’s created a much-needed air of positivity around the club amid the lingering stench of Tom Hicks and George Gillett, and while off the pitch things seem as chaotic and uncertain as ever, at least on it there are some reasons to be cheerful.

Cole fills the gap in the squad left by the recent departure of Yossi Benayoun, offering the same versatility of being to play across the midfield or ‘in the hole’.

There’s not a great deal to choose between the two for me and while there’s euphoria from some fans - and fanciful talk of 'new eras' from some of our ex-players - the signing comes with an element of risk given the relatively recent cruciate ligament injury which kept him out for nine months.

West Ham are said to have offered Cole a bigger pay packet, while Manchester City, Spurs and Arsenal all tried to lure him. Not that he’s come cheap. Free transfer he maybe (Liverpool’s third of 2010 after Maxi Rodriguez and Milan Jovanovic) but a four-year contract at around £4.7million a year could suddenly feel like a very long time, and an awful lot of money, if he fails to rediscover his form and fitness.

Wilson is someone Rafa Benitez targeted, and comes highly rated in Scotland. He’s left-footed but at 18 it would be a surprise if he was instantly pitched into regular Premier League action.

It goes without saying that Gerrard’s commitment is a positive, and hopefully he can rediscover the form we all know he is capable of. A similar soundbite from Fernando Torres would also put minds at rest as his continued silence on the subject of his future remains a concern with Chelsea waiting in the wings.

Add Jonjo Shelvey and Milan Jovanovic to the mix, both deals struck by Benitez, and there seems to be some welcome options and permutations in midfield that bode well for the coming season.

The transfer kitty remains a concern though and it’s on that subject that, as ever, eyes turn to our beloved boardroom.

With the departure of Emiliano Insua imminent – following Fabio Aurelio and Andrea Dossena out of the exit door - a specialist left back is still a must.

But how much is left in the kitty to find the one, ideally two, players to cover that position?

Benayoun left for £5 to £6million depending on what newspaper you read, and Insua and Albert Riera are set to leave for similar figures. According to The Guardian, all three deals were struck before the arrival of Roy Hodgson, who even admitted liking Insua but is seemingly powerless to prevent the transfer going through.

So there’s £15m in for starters. Add Dossena (£4.5m) and Andrei Voronin (£2million), who both departed in January and you would expect there to still be some cash available.

Yet Duncan Castles in the Sunday Times suggested the budget for player purchases could be as little as £3million before player sales.

Of course there was the reported £6million severance fee for Benitez and £2m compensation for his replacement Hodgson to pay which no doubt ate into that figure.

Wilson has cost £2m rising to £5m, while Cole’s wages will also come out of the kitty, a puzzling development which no Liverpool fan can recall every happening at the club before the current regime took charge.

IF there’s money remaining for a left back (not to mention a striker) it could be Hodgson’s first signing as Liverpool manager.

Because so far, he appears to have had very little to do with the transfers, in and out.

Even Cole appears to be the work of someone else. Hodgson admitted that Jamie Carragher and Gerrard had persuaded Cole to come to Anfield during the World Cup. Yet Hodgson wasn’t manager at that point, so who told the players Cole was a target?

Christian Purslow, the club’s managing director, seems the best guess as he’s been name-checked too many times by Hodgson not to be involved (the conversation with Torres and the Cole deal being two examples).

That a boardroom suit should be playing fantasy football manager with the club’s limited finances is concerning yet one senior national journalist recently got in touch with me to say directors making signings in football independent of the manager’s input is far from uncommon.

I find that staggering. And while I have no reason to doubt the journalist, I do wonder how much of such interference Alex Ferguson, Jose Mourinho or Arsene Wenger would tolerate.

Perhaps the said suit should concentrate on what he was brought to the club for – to bring in investment.

In an interview with Director Magazine, Liverpool chairman Martin Broughton said: “Seventh is not Liverpool’s rightful position, and neither is administration.”

That the ‘a’ word is mentioned should send a shudder down the spine of every Liverpool fan. As should David Bick, chairman of Square 1 consulting and an expert in football finance, warning on Sky Sports that Liverpool face “insolvency issues” unless a buyer is found soon.

His point is that the club is being propped up by short-term bank loans, and that a change of direction in ownership is needed fast to arrest a worrying plummet towards financial armageddon - a fall that no amount of ship steadying from Hodgson, or Englishness from Cole, can halt.

In a recent open letter, Bick chillingly concluded: “Once decline becomes precipitous, even money may not prevent the decline spiralling into permanency.”

Cole, Gerrard, Jovanovic, Shelvey and Wilson are good news. The overall picture, still, is not.

Backing Hodgson and backing the decision to appoint him are two different things

WHEN Roy Hodgson emerges from the Anfield tunnel on August 14 to take charge of his first Premier League game as Liverpool boss, I’ll be there cheering him on.

But that doesn’t mean I’m happy with his appointment as successor to the axed Rafa Benitez. Far from it. In fact, I can't shake the feeling that it’s a backward step.

Liverpool will be Hodgson’s 17th job as manager – he’s a journeyman, and in 35 years he’s never won a major trophy.

He was sacked by Bristol City, Blackburn, Inter Milan, The UAE and Udinese. Some track record.

And ask yourself this, if Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal (even Spurs, Man City and Aston Villa) had been looking for a new boss would they have plumped for Hodgson?

It’s a mediocre appointment because the powers that be at Anfield are accepting the club now has mediocre aims under the stewardship of owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett.

Ok, Hodgson got Fulham punching above their weight. He saved them from relegation, he took them to seventh, he reached the UEFA Cup final.

But Fulham isn’t Liverpool. Liverpool is still the most successful side in England. The club has worldwide support. Off-the-field problems or not, expectations for many fans won’t change. They want the title, cups, Europe. They want attractive football. Hodgson hasn’t got form for delivering any of that at a big club.

At Blackburn he spent £20m on a string of flops and nearly took them down. At Inter Milan the fans pelted him with lighters.

But he’s the LMA manager of the year, right? So? Joe Kinnear, Frank Clark, George Burley and Steve Coppell have also won the award so it’s hardly a benchmark for quality.

It stinks of desperation – a knee-jerk appointment based on one good season with Fulham.

It says it all that Kenny Dalglish made it so clear that he wanted the Liverpool job. He didn’t fancy Hodgson for the job and felt he could do it better himself. The King wanted someone world class in the role, a man who could command respect. A Guus Hiddink, a Jose Mourinho.

A man who could persuade Steven Gerrard, Fernando Torres, Javier Mascherano and others that their future lies at Anfield rather than Real Madrid, Chelsea or Inter Milan.

Such bosses are unrealistic targets maybe, due to the state of the club. But that’s why Kenny was prepared to steer the ship until it reached calmer waters.

Now we have a man who can drive a milkfloat steering a Formula One car and he’s expected to make pole position.

Thank God, Sam Allardyce didn’t have a good season…

More analysis of Roy Hodgson's appointment, Rafa's exit plus exclusive interviews with Rob Jones and celebrity Kopite, actor David Morrissey, in issue three of Well Red.

LIVERPOOL FC: A response to Chris Bascombe's hatchet job

TEAR apart a poisonous presentation of something at Liverpool FC and you'll always get the same response: Why does it matter?

Just ignore it, will be the cry. Don't buy the newspaper, give the website a swerve, turn the telly off or change the radio station.

Admittedly for my own blood pressure it works a treat (I'm a much calmer man since I stopped listening to Talk Sport and those dents in the steering wheel have started to recede).

Adopting that strategy is all well and good but when apathy rules, people start to take the piss. And then you realise - misinformation does matter.

It matters because it's a distraction. A noise. It's like someone waving something shiny on the hard shoulder of the motorway - you end up looking when you should be braking to avoid the crash.

The latest distraction comes from Chris Bascombe. And the something shiny in his case is a freshly-sharpened hatchet.

Bascombe, formerly of the Liverpool Echo, and a Liverpool fan, now writes for the News of the World.

I don't buy the paper, I don't visit their website - not just because of their obvious link to The S*n but also because I don't enjoy their particular brand of journalism.

But it's still relatively easy to be exposed to Bascombe's work - it's a reoccurring thread in one of the Liverpool forums for instance. And like it or not, the NOTW is the biggest selling newspaper in Britain.

So Bascombe's words carry weight with some. Many will pick up that paper without knowing the background and believe every word.

I’m not one of them. In fact, I’d go as far as to describe his latest piece as a joke.

Coming just a day after a brilliant warts-and-all summing up of Rafa Benitez's reign by The Mirror's Brian Reade, Bascombe couldn't resist the temptation to plunge the knife into Benitez, the man who helped him win awards at the Echo - and secure a move to a national in the first place.

Because in journalism, contacts are king. Being a competent writer is only half the battle. To win the awards, to impress the big boys, you need a man on the inside. And who better than the manager?

But that was then. And when the Benitez-Bascombe relationship soured, the former Old Hall Street scribe didn't like it.

So when he kicks off his bitter, one-eyed piece with the line about Benitez forgetting about the players, about him having "minimal support", what's that based on? Because it's not fact.

Bascombe probably does still have some contacts at Liverpool - his key one isn't hard to work out, he wrote his book. But one player's view isn't necessarily the view of the whole squad - and shouldn't be presented as so.

So for Bascombe's yin in that he claims Benitez had little backing in the dressing room, I give you Tony Barrett's yang from a recent webchat he did for The Times.

Asked if player power had played a part in Benitez getting the sack, Barrett replied:

"This myth is being perpetuated to ridiculous levels now. I spoke to a very senior Liverpool player today, one who has been outspoken in his criticism of the owners, and he told me the Liverpool dressing room was no different to any other.

"There are players who don't like Benitez, there are others who do like him and there are those who change their opinion of the manager according to variables such as whether or not they are in the team and results."

So there's a view from the inside, from a player - and to him the Liverpool dressing room was no different to any workplace.

Yet to Bascombe, it's the frontline of a warzone.

The alleged evidence of how Benitez mistreated the players, too, is laughable.

Rafa Benitez signed Fernando Torres's hat-trick ball against Hull with 'Keep working'.

Funny how that sentence evokes no emotion when written on its own. Yet Bascombe dresses it up like Benitez had pulled down the striker's shorts and smacked his arse in front of the rest of the players.

It's the same with Henry Winter, a journalist that moves in similar circles, with his constant reference of the 'cold detachment' of Benitez.

I don't know about anyone else, but in my working life I've never had a manager that wraps me in a fur coat, puts me in front of the fire and tells me how good I am every five minutes. Why does a professional footballer need that kind of treatment - particularly one as good as Torres?

If signing a ball 'keep working' is the best evidence Bascombe can present that Benitez is 'cold' after six years, is it unfair to suggest he is clutching at straws?

Then there's the suggestions that Benitez was/is deluded, is some kind of crank - like his attacks on the owners were almost out of order, something he'd dreamt up and exaggerated.

Suggestions which, coming from a Liverpool fan, are startling. Bascombe, more than most, should be all too aware of the perilous position the ownership of Tom Hicks and George Gillett has put the club in - yet it’s almost swatted aside as a side issue.

So while Bascombe admits: "He had much to complain about due to the owners..." he goes on to say "Working for mad chairmen is an occupational hazard but most managers deal with it in a shrewder manner."

But most managers are not dealing with chairmen whose sole aim is to line their pockets. Most managers can rely on some modicum of support from their chairmen, and most chairmen have some idea about football and know, for instance, that if you need a centre half when you are trying to mount a title challenge, you don't go scouring the bottom end of the market.

The vindictive attack goes on and on, tempered only by the sentence: "He was and still is a world-class coach."

My guess is that came afterwards, probably just as he was about to hit send, when he thought: 'Hang on - let's make this a balanced piece..."

That lines appears before he walks off down another avenue - a route where it is clear on which side of the divide he was when the recent public battle of Anfield was taking place.

"Benitez thought he'd won his war. Instead he came up against Christian Purslow at a time when key players' form dipped and injuries took their toll."

Ah Purslow, all hail the suited-up bean counter - our saviour. Ask yourself this, have you ever known a managing director's name appear in the press so frequently? The Telegraph's Winter, the Daily Mail's Ian Ladyman, The Mirror's Dave Maddock - all time and again tellling us what a wonderful job this man is doing while at the same time attacking Benitez and often barely giving a nod to the club's off-field problems.

Anyone would think that some kind of briefings have been taking place...

And what of Purslow? Why is he still here? What's his role? And why is he now getting involved in football matters?

Wasn't it his brief to sell the club (or at the very least bring in some new investment)?

"Vulnerable, Benitez became more confrontational. Purslow soon found himself cast as panto villain amongst the clan referred to in Anfield circles as 'the Rafa mafia'. The poisonous leaks against Purslow were assisted by the careful manipulation of Benitez's sympathisers who laughably complained when the boss became the victim of his own smear tactics."

So what "poisonous leaks" are they then, Chris? Is it supposed to refer to the incident with Spirit of Shankly when "Cecil" tried to release some more spin to fans and SOS felt it was time to reveal what was really being said by a senior official about the future of our club?

Quite how that constitutes Benitez attempting to smear Purslow, I don't know. But it seems the only logical explanation. Otherwise I'm struggling to understand the reference, as are many others.

Whereas if you want evidence of leaks about Benitez being put out to the press by Purslow, well we can go back as far as November when Winter wrote:

"But it is known around Anfield that Purslow has talked to Benítez about his style of management, notably his cold detachment from the players"

Now THAT'S a poisonous leak, as is suggesting the former manager was deliberately missing meetings with Martin Broughton, the new chairman, when he in fact was preparing for a mammoth journey across Europe to Madrid.

Tearing shreds off Benitez isn't Bascombe's only agenda in his latest piece, either. He decides to have a go at fans, too:

"His departure should not only leave fans assessing where the club goes but cause some to re-think their own role. There's a flaw in the ethos of a club which too readily makes gods of managers."

"There's a well meaning but misguided element of Liverpool's support seduced by Benitez's chippy approach. They want Liverpool as a club and city to be belligerent street fighters and their extreme view of what the Scouse mentality is rooted in militant caricature. Benitez bought into this which is why his behaviour became so erratic."

There's also a flaw, Chris, in journalists who too readily accept the viewpoint of one player, or one boardroom suit, without considering what their agenda is; without questioning it; without offering balance.

As for telling fans how they should behave, what they should believe in - even what their politics should be, well who appointed you God, Chris?

Perhaps these fans who you mock recognise the state their club is in. Perhaps they recognise that there is a fight taking place and in Benitez they had an ally - what do you want, a puppet? A man who will watch as Steven Gerrard, Javier Mascherano and maybe even Torres are sold from under him, and will say nothing? A man who won't make a murmur when the promised budget disappears, or when yet another signing goes to the dogs because of tinkering and money watching?

Well not for me, Chris. There's problems enough at the club and Benitez, love or hate his football, was well used to dealing with them.

As you say, he was and is, a world-class coach - something Liverpool now look unlikely to attract.

But it's OK Chris, instead of asking the questions we really want answering - like why spend £6million giving one manager the boot, and £3m to attract an inferior one when we're skint; like why sack the boss without having a replacement lined up; like why target one-season wonders, second-rate nomads and men with less than desirable links and track records that don't stand up when you had a European Cup winner on board?

Instead of those, let's tackle what's really important: that the manager stopped giving you stories, you didn't like it and you couldn't wait to stick the boot in.

That makes you a much better Liverpool fan, Chris. Much better.

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